Cadence sat quietly in a big room filled with guards, on the table in front of her were tea and large amount of cakes in different varieties, Celestia was speaking with her royal guard leader outside of the room. Cadence looked around, the guards didn't seem to be on higher alert more than usual, didn't Celestia tell them about the new threat running around Equestria?
The door swung opened by two guards while two more escorted Celestia inside, after she sat down across from Cadence the royal guard leader signaled for all of his men and women to leave.
With the room empty and even quieter than before Celestia began the conversation. "I'm sorry for making you wait in here by yourself Mi Amore."
Cadence smiled. "That's ok, your guards kept me....er...company." Cadence took a sip of her tea. "While I appreciate the tea and cake I must ask, why must you speak with me in private princess?"
Celestia finished the slice of cake she was eating. "I thought I told you, we must plan our move accordingly and speak about Armor's 'training drills'."
Cadence was a smart Alicorn, she knew this wasn't a simple meeting about a made up training plan. "I suspect there is more to this, if that was all we were going to talk about than why make this a private chat, surely you would have left some of your guards in here so they knew what to brief to the others."
Celestia smiled, of course Cadence would have figured it out. "Other than my sister you are the only one who would question my actions." Cadence was surprised by the statement, but before she could respond Celestia stopped her and continued. "Twilight still believes I am incapable of making mistakes, she will do whatever I ask without questioning why until the end. You have been under my wings before Twilight was even born, I watched you grow from a loving Pegasus into a brave princess, like Twighlight you struggled and prevailed the challenges that were laid before you. Only Luna knows about my past and today, my dear Mi Amore, I want to share that story with you."
Cadence never really thought about Celestia and Luna's past, she always figured that they had lived for so long it didn't matter, they had life experience and she was still a young princess who was still learning about ruling an entire empire. Now that she thought about it, what happened before Equestria when Celestia and Luna defeated Discord, where did they even come from if Sombra was the original ruler of the Crystal Empire?
In the end only Luna knew about those details and she was just as reluctant to speak about the subject than her elder sister, Well if this was something Celestia was going to reveal than Cadence was going to learn more about her royal aunt than anypony else.
Celestia finished her strawberry cake and honey tea. "I see you are beginning to wonder about our past, Luna and mine, you may ask anything. I look forward to finally sharing my mistakes with somepony that isn't Luna, I love my sister dearly but sometimes it's like talking to a mirror. Luna was there for most of the issues, so really we were only reflecting on the past, it provided absolutely no closure for the both of us."
Cadence thought for a moment, there was so much to ask but she didn't want to offend the princess by accidentally hitting a hot button, she looked up to the princess who was eating her fourth slice of cake. "So Princess Celestia, what happened before Sombra?"
Celestia finished her cake yet again. "What do you mean?"
"You and Princess Luna defeated Sombra before Discord right? So if Discord was the ruler of Equestria before you two, why did you attack Sombra?"
"Luna and I believed that Sombra was just a powerful unicorn that ruled over the Crystal Empire with force and we saw the terror he was installing into his subjects hearts. We were going to rule the empire together and protect them forever."
"But Sombra was able to put a curse on the entire empire, making it vanish in thin air."
"Yes, we knew Sombra was powerful but to have that level of magic was something Luna and I thought only we possessed." Celestia poured herself another cup of tea and offered some to Cadence who held her cup up and nodded, while pouring her niece the tea Celestia continued her story. "We flew on, searching throughout all of Equestria we began to hear stories of a wicked creature like none any of the ponies had ever seen, one that defeated every creature or pony that stood against him. Luna and I became concerned that there was somepony, or something, more powerful than Sombra. We soon came across him, Discord the Spirit of Chaos."
Cadence sat her tea cup down. "Princess, before you get into your history with Discord, you never fully explained why you went after Sombra. It sounded like you and Princess Luna just felt like overthrowing somepony you felt was evil, granted the fear and hatred he forced onto his subjects is awful, he never did anything to you."
"In all honesty Cadence, Luna and I was looking for a piece of land for ourselves, once we discovered Equestria we knew it was the place to create a kingdom of our own. During our travels we decided to stop into the Crystal Empire to rest, Luna thought the dark crystals were beautiful she said it reminded her of the gorgeous nights she was able to create." Celestia began to stare at the drapes around the room, they all had her cutie mark on them and were covering the windows, Celestia used her magic to pushed the polyester drapes aside and let the bright sun beam in. "I love Luna's nights but never understood her fascination for the shadows, did you know when we were younger I was afraid of the dark and Luna had to help me overcome those fears?"
Cadence's ears perked up. "Really? You're the Sun Goddess, how could you of all ponies be afraid of something like that?"
Celestia chuckled, this was the first time she had told anybody that part about her and Luna had always kept that secret to herself. "I know it sounds ridiculous, but it's very true, I always felt powerless without the sun. When I discovered my true purpose and my cutie mark appeared I was ecstatic, the sun always made me happy and to see it as my cutie mark was the greatest day of my life."
Cadence giggled, she had never thought about her royal aunts as blank flanks, the very idea of Celestia and Luna not having their marks was nearly unimaginable to her. "It's nice to know that you and Princess Luna was once like everpony else, lost and confused as to what your purpose is, sometimes it's easy to forget that even you two have had hard times."
Celestia smiled at Cadence, it was nice to finally get all of her thoughts out and have someone understand, she feared letting her subjects know her secrets would cause them to judge and lose all of their trust in her.
The smile on the Princess face fell and she gave Cadence a stern look., stopping the crystal princess's laugh. "My dear Mi Amore, what I am about to tell does not leave this room especially not towards Twilight Sparkle, understand."
"Yes Princess."
"It was my idea to attack Sombra and overthrow him, Luna suggested that we move on and allow him to rule his empire anyway he saw fit, but I couldn't just fly away after seeing the pain in those poor ponies eyes. After a few....exchange of words, some of which I wished I never said, Luna agreed to aid me in bringing Sombra down."
"Princess Luna had a point, your highness, I understand you wanted to help but..." Before Cadence could finish Celestia interrupted her.
"I used those ponies as an excuse, Luna was right and I knew it, we should have left Sombra to rule. It would have been easy to just walk away but I didn't, we had a chance to rule an entire empire and I was going to take it, with or without my sister."